Naiya
Naiya is a PC in the Eyrion D&D campaign. Currently, she is a level 6 Barbarian and a level 1 Frenzied Berserker. She enjoys fighting breaking all the things. All of them. 'Vital Statistics' Name: Naiya Race: Elf Class: Barbarian Prestige Class: Frenzied Berkserker Gender: Female Age: 100 Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Deity: Kord Height: 5'0" Weight: 101 lbs Hair: Black Eyes: Green Appearance: Naiya is built like most other elves. She's petite and wiry, and she moves with a sense of effortless grace despite the ruthlessness of her class and the bluntness of her personality. Despite long periods spent outside, she stll somehow manages to remain pale (hooray for being an elf). Personality: Emotionally immature, temper-prone, uneducated, loves a good fight, aggressive, playful, occasionally curious, a touch hedonistic. Outside of battle, she often ends up making herself look stupid (she asks questions when she isn't familiar with something, which is often) and has a tendency to encourage less-than-intelligent behavior in others or partake in it herself for shits and giggles. In battle, however, she commands a presence that's difficult to deny... as long as she channels her anger effectively and doesn't let it turn into frustration that undercuts her very ability to fight. Religious Ideals: Naiya isn't especially religious (and has an active disdain for traditionally elven gods); as such, she actually knows very little of the dogma behind the god she chooses to worship. However, she can totally respect a god who can kick some serious ass, so she tosses her hat in with Kord's congregation and calls it good. History 'Early Life' For the first thirty years of her life, Naiya lived like many other elven children do. She was born to loving parents in a small elven village hidden in the woodlands of Eyrion. While she did seem to have a bit of a temper and a tendency to be rough in her play, these were qualities that could be worked on through socialization and harnessed toward, perhaps, a future as a ranger. She was an only child in her immediate family, the firstborn of her mother and secondborn of her much-older father, and was dutifully raised not only by her parents but also by extended family throughout the village. Considering the nature of elves, that included pretty much everyone. This idyllic childhood was cut short by an attack on the village that left everyone dead--except for Naiya, who had miraculously survived by hiding inside the trunk of a hollow tree. The circumstances of the attack were unclear to its sole survivor, who wandered the wreckage of fire and carnage until she found the corpse of her mother, where she curled up and intended to remain indefinitely. Naiya was thirty years old at the time. 'The Barbarian Tribe' A few days after the attack, a nomadic barbarian tribe came across the destroyed village and began sifting through the remains for anything worth selling or using themselves. One of the tribesmen came across Naiya, who clung protectively to her mother's body and screamed at him (in childish Elven) not to come closer or do anything. He couldn't understand the chlid's language, but he realized that she had been through a great horror... and had survived. Surely, her survival was a sign from the gods of their tribe that she was worthy of becoming one of them despite her strange appearance. The fact that her first reaction to a stranger's approach was to stand her ground and not flee or cower in fear cemented it. It took a few hours of coaxing, but the tribesman finally convinced Naiya that he had no intentions of hurting her. Speaking in Common, he told her that her mother was no longer there and that she would be better off traveling with the tribe instead of dying here. With that, he pulled the child away; the decision to leave was not Naiya's to make. In the years that followed, Naiya proved to be remarkably resiliant. While there were still several times that she cried for her mother or withdrew from the tribe in pained silence or exploded in frustrated rage at her fate, the force of her personality and the good will of the tribal leaders allowed her to come back out of her shell and find a purpose to her life. She was drawn to the sword almost immediately, even trying to take up the blade when she was far too young (and small) to do so. After an injury, the leaders suggested that she take out her anger The tribe treated her as both outsider and novelty, as if she was a prize awarded to them by the gods that they were unsure how to properly be grateful for but also did not want to discard for fear of offense. It didn't help that she aged so much more slowly than the humans in the tribe; by the time she was allowed to begin formal martial training, twenty five years had passed. As time passed and the generation who had taken Naiya in grew older and began to die off, younger generations of warrior-upstarts who had never known a tribe without Naiya began to come of age. Many of them treated her with a detached respect for her status as the tribal novelty or with detatched disdain toward her physiological difference, both of which Naiya dealt with just fine; the former was welcomed and the latter ignored. However, there were those among the tribe that began to resent her. One such individual, Aregarr, chose Naiya to be his partner at the end of his coming-of-age ritual, which consisted of survival trials in the woods and ended with a person losing his virginity to the woman of his choice. While the rite was open to women (Naiya herself was working toward that goal), it was widely considered to be an avenue to manhood. Treating the rite as duty--how else would he become a man, a status that was so highly desired by many of the youths of the tribe--Naiya did not hesitate when she agreed to lie with him after he survived the woods. It hurt. He made sure of it. Two other men chose Naiya for their manhood rituals afterward, one simply because he could and the other because he found her pretty. Neither experience was as miserable as the first, but they weren't very enjoyable, either. It wasn't until Naiya was 85 years old and passed her own ritual--surviving alone in the woods and killing a bear as proof--that she was allowed to live fully on her terms. Her newfound status as a 'man' (albeit a female, elven one) made her off-limits for intimate contact she didn't want, and she could fight as a full-fledged warrior as much as she liked. She could fight as she pleased, act as she pleased, sleep with women as she pleased. For the next five years, her life was practically perfect--even as resentment toward her simmered further just beyond her perception. 'Elven Armistice/Time with the Elves' When Naiya was roughly 90 years old, the tribe came into violent contact with an elven clan in the deep woods. Once the elves realized that the barbarian tribe had an elf among their ranks, they immediately cried foul and demanded 'the elven maiden's immediate return to her cultural brethren.' In return, they would cease fire long enough for the barbarian tribe to pass through (and sully some other part of the forest with their presence). Aregarr, who had by that point ascended into tribal leadership and saw the opportunity to discard the tribe's pet elf, quickly agreed to the deal. By that time, Naiya had been with the tribe for sixty years; her status as a gift from the gods had faded enough in the tribe's public memory that there were few protests. Naiya was furious, calling the tribe a group cowards for avoiding a battle that they could have won. The decision was once again made for her, however, and she had little choice but the follow the elves back to their community. The elves treated Naiya as a charity case at best and a diseased disgrace at worst--especially as they realized that she barely spoke Elven, couldn't read or write, fought with brute stength and anger instead of finesse, and casually spoke of atrocities that she had committed or been forced into in the name of tribal 'culture'. A few elves went about trying to fix and re-educate her in Elven history and culture, the arts, proper combat techniques, and so on. Naiya resented every minute of it. Not only had she been abandoned by the group with whom she felt the most affinity, but she had failed to find any camaraderie at all with her racial peers. After six years of putting up with their hell, Naiya packed up her things in the middle of the night and left. 'Leaving the Elves/Mercenary Work' The following four years weren't terrible. Naiya was a capable enough warrior that she could find mercenary work as she pleased. It wasn't quite the same as the exhilaration she felt with the tribe (since she was no longer part of a unit and felt pretty lonely because of it), but it was definitely passable. She got to fight as she pleased again, and if she wanted company--social or prurient--there were plenty of taverns where she could find temporary companionship. 'Joining the Party' In her travels, Naiya decided to answer the call of a woman looking for her two children, who had gone missing a month prior while off adventuring. Five other adventurers showed up for the job: a mage, a rogue, a dwarven cleric, a monk, and a warlock. The six of them worked together for the rescue mission, although it ultimately became a recovery mission; both children came back as corpses. Under normal circumstances, in Naiya's experience, the party would have then bid each other good luck and went their separate ways after the job was completed. That wasn't what happened. The party didn't gel together immediately, but during their time in the caves the group was whisked elsewhere to help save Helmut Staufen from his family. The mysterious adventure turned out to be a bonding experience between the six of them, since they had all united for one singular goal and actively cooperated to meet it. Between their time with the Staufens and the tavern-going that followed the bitter way their first quest, the team solidified to the point where separating seemed less and less likely. 'Uncomfortable Memories' After the party defeated Eliseo, Aknier's drawing of a symbol found on the dread necromancer's clothes caught Naiya's attention. It was the same symbol that she remembered seeing during the destruction of her home village, something that she hadn't thought about in decades. That, coupled with confused feelings toward Aknier and the party's disapproval after she killed a previous enemy out of rage, sent her reeling. So far, the party has not had a chance to investigate the symbol further, but Naiya intends on pressing the issue. Hard. 'Timeline (Summary)' *0 years old: **Born to nice parents in an elven village. *30 years old: **Village (and entire elven community) is slaughtered by unknown attackers. Naiya is the sole survivor. **Passing barbarian tribe finds the carnage and loots it. They also find Naiya and take her in. *55 years old: **Formal training as a barbarian warrior begins. *75 years old: **First (unpleasant) brush with adulthood. *85 years old: **Passes her ‘manhood ceremony’ and is considered both a full adult and full warrior within the tribe. *90 years old: **Given to an elven clan in exchange for safe passage by the tribe through the elven territory. **'Re-education' into elven lifestyle and culture commences. *96 years old: **Leaves the elven clan due to personal frustration, disillusionment with her own race. **Begins working odd mercenary/adventuring jobs. *100 years old: **Answers petition posted by woman in search of her lost children. **Joins the party. Relationships With the Party : AKNIER : ASCHA : [[Kraven Diamondshield|'KRAVEN']] : LYN : THEROIAN With NPCs : AREGARR : HELLA JEFF : KRAVEN'S BEARD : MEEPO : HELMUT : BONES : RASCHA : ELISEO Category:Characters Category:PC